Fiddleheads

[sarah h]

I can't remember what thread I was in when I mentioned fiddleheads a while back, so I decided to post a follow-up even though they were cooked on the stove.

Here's they first very small batch, harvested from the yard by my daughter who loves them - bit of butter, squirt of lemon ...

Next year (they're not here very long), I'll substitute these for nettles in Frances' nettle pie recipe and bake it in the oven.

[Frances]

What are they? Looks like some kind of fern?

[asudavew]

Very interesting.
How do they taste?
Anything familiar to compare them to?

[Alfredo]

Local asparagus (not the stuff trucked in from Chile) and fiddleheads are most welcome as sure signs of spring around here. Fiddleheads - Wild Harvest Gourmet - Recipes. Delicious

One caution, though: taken in excess fiddleheads do have certain. ahem, emetic properties and may cause gastric as well as social distress

[james]

Beano?

James

[Alfredo]

More like Pepto-Bismol

But seriously, moderate consumption is fine. It's just that when the first ones appear some of us get a little overly enthusiastic

[gjbingham]

Funny, I was looking through the Audubon Filed Guide to the Pacific NW today. It shows a fiddlehead being the new growth of a fern, the part that rolls out as it grows a new leaflet (for lack of a better term). Oyster mushroooms for me and now fiddleheads for you!? What a day. Are you eating ferns Sarah?

[sarah h]

Frances & George, they are ferns - embryonic ones - and as for the taste Dave ... not really like anything else yet kind of like most greens, in a way. Alfredo, some of those recipes look pretty good - for next year though. Gotta catch 'em quick because once they start to unfurl it's too late. The photo below shows them just a few days later. As for gastric distress, either I've been lucky up to now or I just don't eat enough of them!

[gjbingham]

Pffffffffft. Excuse my gas!

Sounds very spinachy - is that a word? Did you tell us that you liked them Sarah? I've forgotten. Perhaps you just like the gaseous emmisions!